Customer Relationship Manager - Beverage Co-packing

SIP Manufacturing; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

SIP Manufacturing seeks a Customer Relationship Manager to own a defined portfolio of beverage-brand customers and manage their forecasts, launches, and growth. You will coordinate between brand needs and plant scheduling, ensuring readiness and timely production across lines, with clear communication when issues arise.

This role focuses on ownership, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration. You will drive product introductions from spec to first commercial run, while maintaining

Qualifications

• Three or more years managing customer accounts inside a contract manufacturer, co-packer, or co-manufacturing operation.
• Ownership of a product from specification through first commercial run.
• Experience with production schedules, BOMs or specifications, MOQs, and yields.
• Track record of customer-facing problem communication in a regulated manufacturing environment.
• Hands-on ERP and Excel.

Responsibilities

• Own a portfolio of brand customers, managing forecasts, launches, problems, and growth.
• Bring new products to the line from specification through commercial launch, coordinating artwork, packaging, materials, and production scheduling.
• Confirm readiness before commitment by checking MOQs, lead times, on-site components, and specs.
• Deliver difficult news with options when slips, holds, or shortages occur.
• Quote the work by explaining pricing that covers runs, changeovers, storage, yield loss, and rework.

Skills

ERP experience

Excel proficiency

Customer management

Supply chain planning

Vendor coordination

Job description

SIP Manufacturing produces beverages for the brands you already drink. Aluminum cans, glass bottles, PET - from established national names to founders shipping their first commercial run.

We're hiring a Customer Relationship manager to own those customer relationships end to end. This is the person who sits between the brand and the plant floor: taking a customer from first conversation through specification, trial, first commercial run, and every run after that. When a component is late, a formula needs adjusting, or a run has to move, you're the one who makes the call and makes the call.

We are PE-backed, and have just broken ground on our 2nd facility. Our current operation is in Lake Elsinore, CA, and we will be up and running in Southaven, MS by March. We're putting $100m in to the building and equipment, and we're sold out for 2 years already.

This is not a selling role and it is not a service desk. You will own a portfolio of manufacturing customers, and their success in our plant is your responsibility.

What you'll actually do:

Own a portfolio. You are the primary business contact for a defined set of brand customers. Their forecasts, their launches, their problems, their growth.

Bring new products to the line. Take a customer from specification and formula handoff through component sourcing, plant trial, first article, and commercial launch. Coordinate artwork, packaging, materials, and production scheduling so the line time we commit is line time we can actually run.

Confirm readiness before we commit. Challenge forecasts. Check MOQs and lead times. Verify components are on site and specs are current. Most schedule failures are material failures, and catching them is the job.

Deliver difficult news well. Schedule slips, quality holds, out-of-spec results, material shortages. You'll communicate these early, factually, and in writing, and you'll come with options.

Quote the work. Build and explain pricing that accounts for minimum runs, changeovers, storage, yield loss, rework, and component pass-throughs - protecting our margin without surprising the customer.

Work the plant. Planning, procurement, QA, R&D, maintenance, and the floor. You'll move work through all of them without direct authority over any of them.

Grow the book. Renewals, added SKUs, expanded volume, and new business from customers who trust us because you've earned it.

What you need

• Three or more years managing customer accounts inside a contract manufacturer, co-packer, or co-manufacturing operation. You worked for the plant, not the brand. You owned accounts, not orders.
• Demonstrated ownership of a product from specification through first commercial run - not launch support, not coordination, ownership.
• Direct experience with production schedules, BOMs or specifications, component readiness, MOQs, and yields. You know why a run fails before it fails.
• A track record of customer-facing problem communication in a regulated manufacturing environment: holds, deviations, shortages, misses.
• Hands-on ERP and Excel. You build the readiness report; you don't request it.

What helps

• Beverage manufacturing experience - non-alcoholic, RTD, functional, CSD, juice, water. This is preferred, not required.
• Experience supporting emerging and founder-led brands alongside established national accounts.
• Familiarity with quality systems - SQF, HACCP, GMP - and the customer-facing side of a hold or CAPA.

Not the right fit:

We say this plainly to save everyone time. This role is not a fit for distributor or route sales, retail or on-premise selling, brand or trade marketing, CRM system administration, or consumer lifecycle and loyalty marketing.